My most recent Netflix delivery was Everything Is Illuminated, which I enjoyed greatly. I didn't expect the film's lovable goofiness to descend into tearjerker territory quite so profoundly midway through the film, but even then it was good stuff.

Admissions: I wanted to see it ages ago because I like Elijah Wood. More recently, I learned that the screenplay was adapted by Liev Schreiber from the novel, and that Liev also directed, and that made me very curious to see it. Now I'm especially glad that Liev's acting career has taken off, because I want the man to make lots of money and reinvest it in personal directing projects about ten to twenty years down the road. We luz our quirky indie films, we do.

I thought that Elijah was the star of this film; he's not. The real star is Eugene Hutz... who is also the frontman for Gogol Bordello, the gypsy punk (a genre I am starting to really dig) band who also performed some of the music for the movie Wristcutters (Wristcutters has a character named Eugene in it who was inspired by Hutz). Songs by Gogol Bordello include the fabulously catchy "Through the Roof and Underground". Which is on permanent rotation on my iPod. Gogol Bordello is lesser known for their philosophy of "DRINK LOCALLY; FUCK GLOBALLY!"

At any rate, Eugene does a fantastic job as the narrative heart and soul of the movie, and if he ever gets weary of being the most gooftastic songwriter there is, I'd love to see him do some more acting.